Russia hit with new Western sanctions as unrest grows in eastern Ukraine

posted at 8:01 am on April 28, 2014 by Ed Morrissey

The US and EU finally escalated sanctions on Russia as unrest expands in eastern Ukraine. Instead of going after the Russian economy on a broad front, though, the new round of sanctions still mainly targets individuals and a few Russian corporations. Will this incremental approach work? Not even Barack Obama is sure:

President Obama said his administration will today impose a new round of sanctions on Russia, targeting an “expanded list of individuals and companies,” with particular focus on some high-tech defense exports.

The president, speaking during a joint press conference with President Benigno Aquino, said the sanctions will “remain targeted,” applied in coordination with European allies, though will not hit Russian President Vladimir Putin directly.

The “goal is not to go after Putin personally, the goal is to change his calculus,” Obama said, “and encourage him to walk the walk and not just talk the talk when it comes to diplomatically resolving the crisis in Ukraine.”

Obama said he wants Russia to support free and fair elections in Ukraine next month but that Putin has not embraced that path.

“These sanctions reflect the next stage in a calibrated effort to change Russia’s behavior,” he said. “We don’t yet know if it’s going to work.”

The US has led on sanctions from the beginning — but that’s not saying much. The incremental approach leaves room for further escalation, but that kind of approach was more suited to prevention when the crisis remained localized in Crimea. It’s clear that the seizures of buildings and the violence within eastern Ukraine has been directed from Moscow, and now Latvia says that Russia has started a similar campaign there. The time for narrowly-targeted sanctions has passed. Will these incremental increases in sanctions work? No. Next question?

To be fair to Obama, though, the EU has been very reluctant to move forward with any sanctions. The US doesn’t have the kind of leverage on its own that Europe does in trade with Russia, which is why Obama has had to push the EU to do much of anything in response to Vladimir Putin’s resurgent imperialism. This was probably as far as Obama could get European leaders to go.

In a sign of how effective we can expect this to be, the mayor of Kharkiv in eastern Ukraine got shot in the back last night, a wound that may be mortal:

A Ukrainian news agency said Mayor Gennady Kernes of Kharkiv was undergoing emergency surgery for a bullet wound after being shot in the back, according to the Reuters news agency.

“The doctors are fighting to save his life,” the mayor’s spokeswoman Tatiana Gruzinskaya told the Ukrainian agency, according to Reuters.

In Slavyansk, the rebels who abducted Western observers from OCSE put them on display for the media overnight. The rebels released one of their hostages, but then seized a television station in order to force the broadcast of uninterrupted Russian propaganda in the area:

Seven European military officers and a translator being held hostage by pro-Russia separatists were paraded before the news media on Sunday, hours after another group of captives, three Ukrainian security agents, were shown on Russian TV huddled in a room, blindfolded and bloody, without pants, their arms bound with packing tape.

Later in the day, pro-Russia activists took control of the state TV center in this regional capital without firing a shot. Members of a separatist movement called the Donetsk People’s Republic, aided by a fight club from the eastern city of Kharkiv, stormed the broadcast facility, saying they were sick of watching news aired through the prism of their enemies in Kiev and demanding an undiluted stream of Russian programing.

The day’s events showed eastern Ukraine slipping further into chaos, with armed separatists openly defying state authority and local police either folding in sympathy or admitting that they felt too intimidated to stop the pro-Russia groups.

One would think that Europe might consider a little stronger action after Russia’s proxies kidnapped their observers, but apparently the trade issue is more important to them than this kind of lawlessness. Are the Baltic states taking a lesson from this flaccid Western response? I’d bet on it.

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Obama declines to define an Obama Doctrine but his comments boil down to this: slowly & steadily advance US interests, avoid unnecessary war
===================================================================

Jonathan Karl ‏@jonkarl 4h

Obama on his cautious foreign policy: “You hit singles, you doubles and occasional you may be able to hit home runs”
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Jonathan Karl ‏@jonkarl 4h

The President says his critics were advocates of a “disastrous” war and Iraq who haven’t learned the lessons of that war.
==================================================

Jonathan Karl ‏@jonkarl 4h

Asked by @edhenryTV to describe the Obama Doctrine, @BarackObama says, “I doubt I am going to have time to outline my entire foreign policy”

“These sanctions reflect the next stage in a calibrated effort to change Russia’s behavior,” he said. “We don’t yet know if it’s going to work. But on the plus side, the Ukrainian Army has 7.1 million sign-ups thanks to our hashtag game on Twitter, so put that in your pipe and smoke it Koch Brothers!”

Obama on his cautious foreign policy: “You hit singles, you doubles and occasional you may be able to hit home runs”

canopfor on April 28, 2014 at 8:28 AM

Unfortunately, he keeps grounding out at first.

The scary thing is, this isn’t just a failure of Obama’s foreign policy. It’s symptomatic of his whole presidency. If we had increased fossil fuel production in this country, approved more exports, and built Keystone we’d have a lot more leverage over Russia. So all we have is empty posturing.

Ukraine, Russia political crisis
3s
White House: ‘Russia has done nothing to meet its Geneva commitments and in fact has further escalated the crisis’ – Statement via @NBCNews
end of alert
==============

Ukraine, Russia political crisis
2m
US sanctions 7 Russian government officials, 17 companies with links to President Vladimir Putin – @AP
end of alert

One would think that Europe might consider a little stronger action after Russia’s proxies kidnapped their observers, but apparently the trade issue is more important to them than this kind of lawlessness.

The scary thing is, this isn’t just a failure of Obama’s foreign policy. It’s symptomatic of his whole presidency. If we had increased fossil fuel production in this country, approved more exports, and built Keystone we’d have a lot more leverage over Russia. So all we have is empty posturing.

More Obama-fail.

PetecminMd on April 28, 2014 at 8:53 AM

PetecminMd: Biden was to be his Foreign Policy Expert,..according to
the NYT,..and yes,…is a boinking disaster:)

Biden Brings Long Foreign Policy Experience to Obama’s Presidential Bid
A veteran of the Senate, Biden will try to help Obama tie McCain to Bush’s troubled overseas legacy

By Thomas Omestad
August 25, 2008
***************

n the realm of foreign policy,

Joseph Biden brings to Barack Obama’s presidential bid

something it lacks at the top—long experience with a range of countries,

problems, and foreign leaders.

During his short-lived presidential nomination run—and before he was tapped this weekend to be Obama’s vice presidential running mate—the Delaware senator argued

that the failures in Bush administration foreign policy and troubling trends overseas mean

that foreign policy should be front-and-center in this year’s race for the White House.

Obama’s selection of Biden signals

that the Democrats will indeed try to turn disquiet over falling U.S. standing in the world,

Washington’s troubles in Iraq and Afghanistan,

and other anxiety-producing events

like Russia’s invasion of Georgia to their political advantage.
(More..)
========

what is the difference between the anti-Yanukovich demonstrators that brought down the duly elected president and the pro-Russina demonstrators?

avi natan on April 28, 2014 at 9:03 AM

Nothing except we’re supposed to be all up in arms because the Ruskies! Seems odd to me that so many so-called conservatives begin salivating like Pavlov’s dogs just because Russia is mentioned, despite the fact that the government (duly elected and legitimate) of Ukraine was brought down by an illegal coup.

One would think that Europe might consider a little stronger action after Russia’s proxies kidnapped their observers, but apparently the trade issue is more important to them than this kind of lawlessness.

To paraphrase:

Those who sacrifice liberty for trade issues deserve neither and will lose both.